What People Say

All of the incredible feedback from our great listeners is what gives us the energy and motivation to keep doing what we do every day. Here is a selection of some of the emails, reviews, comments, or mentions that we have received. We want to hear from you! Click here to share your story!

As any JET Programme participant can tell you, a little Japanese goes a long way, and JapanesePod101 is perfect for a little Japanese and then some! With absolute beginner to advanced levels, audio and video lessons, study tools, and an active community, this site is for anyone and everyone. It offers a variety of resources to review what you’ve learned, as well as more common JLPT practice tests. Natural and practical Japanese lessons will come in handy for the conversationalist as well as those pushing their fluency limits.
Whether you’re a JET who’s encountering Japan and Japanese for the first time or a returning tried and true Japanese warrior, JapanesePod101 is highly recommended by AJET for you.

AJET | The Association for Japan Exchange and Teaching

I distinctly remember the first day having the urging desire to learn Japanese – the first resource that I came to was JapanesePod101. I remember downloading every single JapanesePod101 podcast that I could possibly fit into my mp3. Since that day, I have listened to JapanesePod101 almost every single night. I used their resources like they were my own college textbooks. Sleeping doesn’t feel right without hearing a good lesson. JapanesePod101 assures that your learning is constant, even when you are lying down to sleep. If you look at their site and materials, they are seriously, top quality.

Albert Kim

I began listening to JapanesePod101.com in college when I studied Japanese there, and loved getting the extra help and extra vocabulary from the lessons. Now, I’m living in Fukushima prefecture in Japan teaching English! I used the JapanesePod101 lessons to help prepare for my interview, using some of the lessons focusing on formal Japanese and interview language. I still listen even now, and use it to improve my ability to speak with my coworkers😄 I plan to take the JLPT exam this July, and have already downloaded all of the JLPT series to help. Thank you so much for all your hard work, and I look forward to many more awesome lessons in the future!

Mary Effler

A few days ago, I had been to “The International Book Fair” at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. My love for Nihongo took me straight to the Japan section. It was my first encounter with native Japanese people. I found a lot of the material from your site to be of immense help. Starting from Hajimemashite, I was able to use phrases like: “ikura desu ka.” and back in my mind, I had the JapanesePod101 videos going on. Based on the Kana knowledge that I have gathered from Kantan Kana series by Chihiro san, I was able to read real Kana in some children’s books there and I felt very happy at heart. The style of material at JapanesePod101, starting from audios to videos to visual… is unique, and more than anything, it makes learning fun and absorbing experience.

Nikhil Khullar

Last week I was in Japan on Business, and decided to go hiking on the takamizusanzan trail, an adventuresome trail across three mountains in Tokyo’s Okutama area. I am not very fluent in Japanese, so prior to the trip, I made a point to review Japanesepod101 Survival Phrases. Remembering a key phrase I learned in the audio, I found a Japanese hiker, pointed to the sign, and asked “Sore wa nan to yomimasu ka?” (from Survival Phrases #8). His response was “Mitake eki”, and I breathed a sigh of relief- there apparently are two different kanji that can be used to write “mitake”. The survival phrase actually helped me survive in the Japanese mountains. I’m not sure what I would have done if I couldn’t get help in interpreting the sign.

Arigatou gozaimashita !

Jack Leitmeyer

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I was really surprised at how fast and easy you learn with this method. I remember the first time I went to Japan and wasn’t able to talk, it was very frustrating. But now I can have a casual conversation and even speak on the phone with my friends. I like how you can listen to the podcasts while driving or working, and how you can learn with just that. You assimilate Japanese without effort or even thinking about it. I’m also surprised at how much I can understand while listening to a movie now while turning the subtitles off. Another think that I like is that even if I’m not native English speaker, the hosts articulate very well, so it’s very easy to understand. The stories and mood of the show is really fun too. You have a wide choice of levels to choose from, and I could speak with friends only after listening to beginner seasons 3 to 5. After struggling with many many (boring) books or classes, it’s a relief. I’ve already recommended JapanesePod101 to people, because it’s really worth it. I even gave a try to the other languages, always efficient !

Thank you JapanesePod101 Team !

Lya Cuello

I have been studying Japanese off and on for a number of years. I have never been able to break through the intermediate level. There are any number of reasons. One reason may be that intermediate grammar is often taught in Japanese … which often relies on a deductive approach to understanding. Formation of the structure is easier to teach than when and how to use the structure. JapanesePod101 teaches grammar directly and in English. It comes as such a relief to hear technical explanations of a grammatical structure in a language you understand. Thank you.

Frank Graziani

I have four kids, and every time we would go to McDonalds or another burger place, I would try to order them hamburgers without ketchup, or onions, or pickles, or something, because my kids are picky that way. One time I got a burger with no hamburger, just the bun. One time I got no bun and just the burger. After going through the lessons and learning how to order properly, now we get our burgers the way they like them.

Thank you Japanesepod101.com!

Mike6686

Mike Wilhelm

I’ve been studying Japanese at university since September 2011, and have yet not learned anything besides a few new words and kanji. Grammar, vocabulary, sentence constructions etc. has not been the least bit challenging nor new - and ALL credits go to JapanesePod101.com! Mind you, I have only been a Basic Member, but thruthfully, I’ve mostly only listened to the lessons, and not looked at the PDFs. I can’t imagine how far I’d gone if I’d also used the extra material and studied kanji…
- A sincere “Thank you” to the entire staff on JapanesePod101.com!

I was a student of media studies / media science (Medienwissenschaften it’s called in German) when I fell into depression and had to be hospitalized. I spent 4 months in a mental hospital (2009) and even though I knew I couldn’t do anything productive when I got out (as in going back to university, taking a job, etc.) I set myself the goal to study Japanese.
I had already listened for a year or so to Japanesepod101.com but I never got serious because I have problems remembering things and when you learn a language you need to remember vocabulary. After I was discharged from the hospital I bought a premium subscription to finally challenge the language and most of all: myself. Doing something I thought I cannot do, to fight my symptoms (especially problems with concentration), to have a task to get up for and to have something where I can see and not being to deny my progress.

I combine listening to the audio lessons & review/dialogue tracks a few times, looking at the pdf, going over my textbooks and putting the Japanesepod’s vocab into Anki (which you recommended back then) and learning that. My textbooks are in German and it does help actually to learn Japanese in English and in German parallel because I don’t stick so much with a word by word translation as I rather understand the meaning. Sometimes it is just a translation. A book is ほん but if you try to translate はじめまして or いただきます that’s a different matter.

I am not that fast with the language learning but I try. For me the point is that it keeps my mind occupied and broadens my knowledge. I am a head-person, I think a lot, and when you’re unable to actually do anything the mind dries out. That’s why I also listen to EnglishClass101 and GermanPod101. Just thinking about language is fun. Japanesepod helps me to keep my mind in training and even more importantly it makes me feel as if I would accomplish something and my time isn’t wasted. This is a huge help for me. Language learning is brilliant and I wish I were a language buff but I am not, however you help not only with my Japanese but also you accompany me on my way to get better, to get healthy.

Salivia Baker

I absolutely love the lessons available with JapanesePod101.com. The podcasts are informative, engaging, and have excellent sound quality. The videos available online and as video podcasts are of equally excellent quality and compress a lot of information into accessible chunks. The quizzes and notecards are great for testing how much you’ve retained. I’m so glad I got the premium membership, and recommend it to all!

Meg Abraham

Japanese is something i wanted to learn for a really long time but classes would cost so much and i didn’t have much luck with finding good sites. But my luck turned again and i stumbled across Japanesepod101.com and i automatically sign up for the free trial, and let me tell you i fell in love with it.

My mother just recently purchased a basic membership for me and i have been on it ever since, i love how things are broken down for you to clearly get the understanding and you have different difficulty levels which is a great bonus. I would recommend to anyone who like me is determined to master the language that Japanesepod101.com is the best website to get that determination from and the lesson are fun and entertaining so you never get bored. Thank you and keep the good work up.

Berrisha Franklin

Thank you Japanesepod101 for enriching my Japanese vacation!

My wife and I just got back from Japan and we had an amazing time. Part of that was because of the reception we got every time I spoke Japanese. I spent two months listening to japanesepod101 podcasts on my work commute and I couldn’t believe how much I learned in such a short time. I think hearing all the different teachers really helps with pronunciation. In addition to the language, the cultural insights and basic information about how to get around were invaluable.

We’ve traveled to many different countries and have always tried to use the local language but the reactions elsewhere in the world were not nearly as satisfying as in Japan. The smiles and looks of surprise on people’s faces were priceless and made all the effort worth it. I was asked many times if I lived in Japan or if I spoke Japanese! The only downside to this was the rapid Japanese spoken after my initial phrases or questions! But being able to converse, albeit just a little, really enhanced our experience and I definitely recommend learning as much as you can from Japanesepod101 before you go!

Bryan C.

I just want to say THANK YOU for putting together such an efficient, comprehensible system for learning Japanese at JapanesePod101. From the website to the mobile app– I cannot fathom the amount of man hours that went into assembling all of this data and building out all the programming. Seriously, great work. My expectations were exceeded, and it’s the first time I’ve stuck with learning a language and not dropped out like the countless other times!